Chapter 19
Section 19 of Birds in All Nature, Volume 4, Number 1, July, 1898, read for LibriVox.org by Joe Brenneman. Section 19. The Bloodless Sportsman. I go a-gunning, but take no gun, I fish without a pole, And I bag good game, and catch such fish, As suit a sportsman's soul. For the choicest game that the forest holds
And the best fish of the brook Are never brought down by a rifle shot And are never caught with a hook I bob for fish by the forest brook I hunt for game in the trees
For bigger birds than wing the air Or fish that swim the seas A rodless walton of the brooks A bloodless sportsman eye I hunt for the thoughts that throng the woods, the dreams that haunt the sky.
The woods were made for the hunters of dreams, the brooks for the fishers of song. To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game, the streams and the woods belong. There are thoughts that moan from the soul of the pine, and thoughts in a flower bell curled. And the thoughts that are blown with the scent of the fern are as new and as old as the world. Sam Walter Foss
End of section 19. This recording is in the public domain.
